Getting ready for leaving: improving young people's experiences of preparing to leave residential care

Objectives This session reports on an innovative intervention designed to enable improvements in young people’s experiences when preparing to leave residential care. Centering on 15 children’s homes/semi-independent... [ view full abstract ]

Objectives
This session reports on an innovative intervention designed to enable improvements in young people’s experiences when preparing to leave residential care. Centering on 15 children’s homes/semi-independent provisions in the north west of England, the programme was funded by the Department for Education. Evaluation was designed as integral to the two-year programme and investigated the intervention at two points in time, with interim findings taken forward into the development of the second year of delivery.

Method
In line with the programme ethos of co-production, a participative approach was used to shape evaluation data collection tools and to gathering data. The evaluation encompassed a full range of perspectives from those involved in the intervention, including: young people; staff working in participating children’s homes/sites; staff involved in extensive training sessions; service managers and project liaison staff; and staff involved in delivering the intervention. Full ethical approvals were granted formally via the relevant ethics committee at the researchers’ host institution.

Results
Findings indicated positive developments in: overall planning and preparation for the future; developing more effective, accurate and accessible records of plans; levels of engagement by staff and young people in preparation; interprofessional practice; and the quality of individual lives. Planning was strengthened by being: joined-up and involving a full range of relevant personnel; accessible to young people; focused on individuals; and up-to-date and relevant, rather than generic. Young people’s ‘Pathway Plans’ needed to be: focused on young people as individuals; accessible to young people, by including shorter, less professionalised summaries; and up-to-date and relevant, not simply recording generic life events.

Training which engaged a ‘vertical slice’ of staff within a site enabled the development of ‘Leaving Care Aware’ organisations, where learning took place from the perspective of others, barriers and enablers were worked on jointly, and there was space to consider how services can work together to improve young people’s opportunities and well-being. Including the voices of young people in training sessions served to enable the consequences of practice to be more keenly recognised. Young people valued their voices being heard and accompanied by transparent action, since this avoided tokenism.

A central, open access and up-to-date website which served as a reference and resource point for young people and staff was pivotal as a source of policy/legislation/rights information to facilitate preparation for independence. Provision of a dedicated and experienced ‘preparation for adult life’ professional enabled staff and young people to develop creative and tailored transition strategies, and served to sustain motivation in this respect.

The emotional effect on staff of preparing young people to leave care was seen to be a potentially powerful barrier to progress which needed to be addressed and supported. This was particularly important where staff found their value base to be conflicted, for example when beginning preparation with a young person whom they regarded as very vulnerable and ‘too young’. Not all staff had prior experience in helping young people to move on from care. Staff valued support in developing strategies and pedagogical approaches in direct work with young people.

Conclusions
Preparing to leave care increases intensity in already complex lives; settled periods are disrupted frequently and this may result in a tumultuous time for all concerned. Extra support for young people is required to enable positive development. Young people may need long periods of supported transition in order to move away from institutionalised care towards achieving a confident sense of agency sufficient to withstand the inevitable decrease in support.

The overall programme contributed towards offering a better understanding of what is needed to improve young people’s experiences of leaving residential care and to enhance their life chances.